When Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an impassioned appeal to Indians to voluntarily ‘give up’ LPG subsidy, it resonated deeply with the citizens. A year after the petroleum ministry launched a well-crafted ‘Give it Up’ programme, more than 10 million LPG consuming households had opted to buy cooking gas cylinders at the market price, saving the government around Rs 4,166 crore.

While citizens must be commended for voluntarily giving up their LPG subsidy, there is another element of our daily life that we must focus on immediately -- giving up the levels of pollutants our vehicles throw out into the atmosphere. The problem of poor air quality became the centre of public discourse last year when the Delhi government conducted the city’s first car rationing experiment. The odd-even scheme was another public programme in which the citizens participated voluntarily and actively.

According to estimates, over 50,000 new vehicles hit Indian streets every day. The rising numbers of vehicle ownership in India is expectedly creating a number of problems for the Indian cities; most notable among them being deteriorating air quality.The financial health burden of air pollution in India is estimated to be around 3 per cent of our GDP.

With carbon emissions and poor air quality emerging as major concerns, India desperately needs another revolution on the lines of ‘Give it up’. This time it must be called – ‘Give it up on Pollution’. Importantly, LPG is also a green and highly affordable solution that can be promoted for use in automobiles to improve air quality of cities. Automotive LPG, as it is called, can emerge as the most viable alternative fuel for Indian cities.

The actions

In a landmark decision to make vehicular emission regulation standards in India in line with global best practices, the Supreme Court of India recently banned sale of vehicles which do not comply with Bharat Stage-IV norms. According to reports, the centre has spent around Rs 18,000 to 20,000 crore for producing cleaner fuel in the last 5 years. Initiatives by the Government of India like PAHAL, Ujjwala, and Direct Benefit Transfer have helped genuine users of domestic LPG. On the other hand,the ‘Give it Up’ scheme encouraged accomplished households to voluntarily give up their liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) subsidy so that it could be targeted to the economically backward who are still reliant on polluting cooking fuels such as wood, crop residues and coal.

Motor vehicles emit dangerous air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds and benzene into the environment, making our urban air deadly. They contribute to smog, make everyday breathing deadlier than smoking, contribute to rise in asthma, and lung cancers; and predispose children, who have under-developed lungs, to respiratory illnesses. As of now, a bulk of vehicles in India run on conventional carbon fuels such as petrol and diesel. A small amount of the market has been taken up by CNG, a relatively cleaner fuel. However, for our air quality to become breathable again, much more needs to be done on the alternative fuel front. The government has put a lot of focus lately on policies to promote electric vehicles. However, there is another low-hanging fruit the government can immediately focus on to bring about a quick change in air quality – auto LPG.

How auto LPG can help

Auto LPG has many benefits for the environment and increasing its usage widely can have dramatic effects on the air quality of Indian cities.

Auto LPG can be transported by tankers and sold through existing filling stations, unlike CNG that requires a lot of downtime and much more investment. Notably, auto LPG emits 22 per cent lower CO2 than petrol and 68 per cent lesser nitrogen oxides (NOx) than petrol. As compared to diesel, it emits 96 per cent lesser NOx and 120 times lower particulate matter emission. The refuelling time of Auto LPG is on a par with other conventional fuels and refuelling infrastructure installation is easy and convenient. In fact, its operating expenses are up to 50 per cent lower than petrol and the cost of an LPG vehicle – whether factory fitted or retro-fit -- is even lower than that of CNG. Economic considerations also tilt the balance in favour of Auto LPG. Leading oil companies in India since October 2016 reduced the Auto LPG price to make it cost almost 50 per cent less than petrol.

As mentioned earlier, auto LPG is a highly clean and energy-efficient automotive fuel which is much cheaper than petrol and diesel and very comparable to CNG. Autogas is the third most used Automotive fuel globally after petrol and diesel. More than 26 million vehicles run on Auto LPG around the world supported by 71,000 LPG filling Stations. Around 70 countries are now using Auto LPG in vehicles to help clean their urban air and clean environment. Among the key nations that have successfully adopted this green fuel for their transportation requirements are South Korea, Turkey, Poland, Japan, Australia, Italy, Mexico, USA, Russia, and China. In India, however, the growth of the auto LPG sector is somewhat constrained. What has come as a good piece of news lately is the fact that the Government plans to bring domestic and commercial LPG under the same tariff rate in the GST regime. Evidently, time is now ripe for us to embrace this economical, cleaner, and viable, alternative automotive fuel on a large scale.

The government must include Clean Air as an agenda of the Swatch Bharat Campaign, make it mandatory for all government vehicles to convert and run on clean gaseous fuels and provide incentives to citizens to convert their vehicles to LPG mode. Further, the government must incentivize automobile manufacturers or OEMs to manufacture auto LPG vehicles and run a wider campaign like ‘Give it Up’ to encourage citizens to convert their vehicles to cleaner fuels.

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Suyash Gupta is the Director General of industry body Indian Auto LPG Coalition. He is a former consultant to National Energy Technology Laboratory, US Department of Energy. Gupta is also a member of Standing Committee on Emission Legislation (SCoE) and Central Motor Vehicle Rules (Technical Standing Committee) of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.

Suyash Gupta is the Director General of industry body Indian Auto LPG Coalition. He is a former consultant to National Energy Technology Laboratory, US Department of Energy. Gupta Show more.. is also a member of Standing Committee on Emission Legislation (SCoE) and Central Motor Vehicle Rules (Technical Standing Committee) of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.